Piraeus

City (pop., 2001: 175,697), port of Athens, Greece. The port and its “long walls,” fortified barriers connecting it with Athens, were completed in the mid-5th century BC. The walls were destroyed by Sparta at the end of the Peloponnesian War. Rebuilt under the Athenian leader Conon in 393 BC, Piraeus was burned in 86 BC by the Roman commander Lucius Cornelius Sulla. The city regained importance after AD 1834, when Athens became capital of the newly independent Greece. The largest port in Greece, it is the centre for all sea communication with the Greek islands.